Blues drop shootout to Ducks

David Perron, Chris Stewart and Alex Steen all scored for the St. Louis Blues during their shootout with the Anaheim Ducks, but goalie Brian Elliott let four go by in six rounds, including the winner from Nick Bonino as the Blues fall 6-5 to the Ducks.

Stewart tied the game at 5-5 at the 15:26 mark of the third period on a power play goal and then it appeared as though the Blues had the game winner 22.2 seconds left in overtime. Ian Cole beat Ducks goalie Viktor Fasth. However, the officials waved the goal off, calling Patrik Berglund for incidental contact with the goalie. Anaheim’s Francois Beauchemin gave a little push to Berglund, forcing the contact and sending the game to a shootout.

“I was pretty excited. I blacked out for a second … I don’t know what happened,” Cole said. “I usually just score one goal a year, so that’s it. I’m done now. You go from a pretty high to I guess shock almost. You’re like, ‘Wait, what just happened?’ I didn’t really see it. I didn’t get an explanation. Obviously, the refs didn’t want to talk to me. I guess it was goalie interference. I didn’t see it, but it is what it is. We still tried to get one there in the last 20 seconds.”

Elliot, an All-Star last year, has struggled early in the nets for the Blues and without Jaroslav Halak due to his groin injury, coach Ken Hitchcock is ready to make a change of Halak is not ready next week.

“Not playing very good. Not much I can say … not playing very good,” Hitchcock said. “He’d (Elliott) be the first to tell you too. He’s got to play better. If Jaro’s not ready, then we’ll play Jake (rookie Jake Allen) Monday.”

Elliot is 3-4-1 with a 3.51 goals-against average and .853 save percentage.